Friday, October 27, 2017

Following his arrest by Chhattisgarh Police on Monday morning, former BBC journalist Vinod Verma said he was being framed for allegedly blackmailing and extorting money from a Chhattisgarh PWD minister Rajesh Kumar.

On his way to the Ghaziabad district court, Verma told reporters he had a sex tape of the minister on a CD. "The government of Chhattisgarh is not happy with me. I just have a pen drive and have nothing to do with a CD," he said.

According to media reports, the police recovered 500 CDs of the sex tape from the veteran journalist's Indirapuram house in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. He has been booked under Section 384 (extortion) and Section 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal code (IPC). The has been registered at Pandri police station in Raipur district of Chhattisgarh.

Speaking to the media, Raipur Inspector-General (IG) Pradeep Kumar said: "The investigation is underway. We can't reveal the details but contents of the CD violate Section 67 of IT Act."

"A huge quantity of CDs has been seized from the journalist's house. We are scrutinising the material to check whether there is any link to sex scandal involving higher-ups," Senior Superintendent of Police HN Singh said. The police recovered 500 CDs of the sex tape, a laptop and pendrive from Verma's residence. It's unclear if the CDs were planted or Verma had indeed created copies.